Wednesday, 18 July 2012

So I Read Lawless

A 250 word (or less) review of the second Criminal
collection

By Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, Icon Comics

Lawless is the second Crime Noir masterwork by Ed Brubaker
and Sean Phillips. This time the story follows Tracy Lawless, a burn-scared
special forces veteran, on a quest to find his brothers killer. To find the
killer Tracy joins his brother’s old gang as a driver and, in doing so, becomes
enmeshed in the life and crimes of his brother. Lawless, in proper Criminal tradition,
leans heavily on Noir genre tropes of crime, vengeance, doomed romance, and the
inexorable slide into chaos that occurs when events conspire against the
protagonist. Unlike Coward, the first Criminal volume, which has a big action-movie
quality about it, Lawless feels much smaller, character driven, and focused.
The result is a story that is much more personal and textured which makes for a
more relentless and engrossing read. It also feels more quintessentially noir…
if that is a thing that can be said with any sort of authority. Brubakers
writing in this edition is peerless; the script delivers thrills and
tingle-inducing twists but is still organic and assured feeling. Phillips
artwork is as moody and atmospheric as ever, and has a much more refined colour
palette than that seen in Coward. Lawless, then, is a masterfully crafted comic
book that tells a riveting crime noir story that comes to life on the page. This book really makes me wonder why the Crime
genre of comics died out: when well executed they are every bit as interesting
as any superhero comic ever was.

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My Ten Atoll Comics

Bitch Planet

Black Widow

Giant Days

Karnak

Pretty Deadly

Spider-Woman

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Vision

Atoll Comics

UPDATES: M-W-F

Due to poverty and an urge to buy better comics, I have decided to be super-selective about which superhero comics I read. Harnessing the Awesome Power of Maths, I have determined that I can afford to read 10 ongoing titles. So I get to read 10, and only 10, titles published by either Marvel or DC (as well as one creator owned trade paperback a week). This blog is me working through deciding which 10 superhero titles are the 10 worthiest of reading and discussing why creator owned comics are amazing.

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I'm a Science Graduate Student who loves comic books, enjoys novels, and needs practice writing. Welcome to my nonsense.
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